1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cabinet systems for housing and maintaining electronic equipment. More specifically, the present disclosure is directed to a cabinet system having a gas flow distribution configuration that regulates temperature for monitoring and controlling conditions of the system, including cooling of heat generating electronic components.
2. Background of the Art
Cabinets for storing of electronic equipment are well known. These cabinets can be designed to enclose and store electronic equipment on racks in a vertical arrangement. The electronic equipment may include computers, data servers, storage systems, communication systems, audio/video components, etc.
These cabinets may also be configured to store blade servers, which are single circuit boards populated with components, such as, processors, memory and network connections. The cabinet can include enclosures or slots for receiving the blades.
It is desirable for the efficient operation of the electronic equipment, such as blade servers, to maintain an acceptable working temperature within the cabinet and avoid overheating of the electronic equipment. However, the electronic equipment stored in the cabinet typically generate heat during operation, and for example, the chassis of a blade server can create substantial amounts of heat thereby greatly increasing the heat load in the cabinet. This heat load causes an increase in the internal temperature of the cabinet. This temperature eventually exceeds the acceptable working temperature for the electronic equipment, resulting in overheating. Overheating of the electronic equipment can lead to equipment error, failure, shutdown, damage, shortened life and low reliability.
Various prior attempts have been made to overcome the drawbacks associated with the excessive heat loads and/or accumulation of heat generated during operation of electronic equipment stored in a cabinet. One attempt places several such cabinets in a room, which is air conditioned or supplied with ducted cool air. This attempt, however, suffers from several disadvantages such as the requirements of cooling the entire room and its contents, the adverse effect of one cabinet temperature relative to another, and the inability to upgrade electronic equipment because the cooling capacity has reached its maximum.
Other attempts include cabinet designs having multiple front and rear access openings, which may include fan units. These designs disadvantageously have difficulty maintaining uniform temperature within the cabinet due to greater amounts of heat being found at the top of the cabinet resulting in temperature gradients from the top to the bottom of the cabinet. In these cases, the equipment located near the top is more prone to failure from overheating.
Still other attempts include ducted cool air assemblies. However, these designs do not account for temperature gradients or provide reliable temperature regulation. In some cases, these designs are configured for an initial equipment load and programmed to operate at full capacity, regardless of the heating load. Thus, these cooling designs are in effect static and unable to accommodate load changes. In the event of equipment failure or discontinuity, many industries cannot afford down time to accommodate changes. Further, these designs can disadvantageously waste power and cooling capacity.
Therefore, it would be desirable to overcome the disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art with a cabinet for housing and maintaining electronic equipment, which includes a system having a gas flow distribution configuration that regulates temperature, as well as related methods of use. Further, it would be desirable if the cabinet and related methods can accommodate increased density of equipment and high heat loads while providing cooling efficiency. It is most desirable that the cabinet provides a dynamic cooling system to accommodate additional equipment, or modified equipment, and/or changing heat loads such that the temperature regulation and associated cooling can be modified during use of the equipment without shutdown. It is contemplated that the cabinet of the present disclosure is easily and efficiently manufactured and assembled.